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I  OS   AMCiELES.  CAL»F. 


The 

Historic  Role  of  France 

Among  the  Nations 


An  Address 

Deli'vered  at  the  Uni-venity  of  Chicago 
October  i8,  Jgo^ 


By  Charles  Victor  Langlois 

Professor  of  the  Sciences  Auxiliary  to  History 
Faculty  of  Letters,  University  of  Paris 


CHICAGO 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 
1905 


13  3  0 


THE  HISTORIC  ROLE  <?/ FRANCE 
AMONG  THE  NATIONS" 

It  seems  to  me  very  probable  that  those  who 
invited  a  historian  and  a  professor  of  history  to 
address  you  today  expected  him  to  make  history 
his  theme.  Not,  perhaps,  that  I  should  choose 
a  topic  from  my  own  special  field  of  study, 
which  is  too  technical,  but  rather  one  of  those 
large  subjects  which  historians,  whatever  the 
nature  of  their  investigations,  are  not  at  liberty 
to  ignore  —  such  subjects  being  the  final  end  and 
justification  of  all  historical  investigation. 

The  philosophy  of  French  history  is  surely 
a  subject  of  this  kind,  for  the  ultimate  object  of 
all  labor  on  the  history  of  a  nation  is  to  deter- 
mine that  nation's  present  position  and  the  di- 
rection in  which  it  is  moving.  Your  presence 
here  proves  your  interest  in  all  that  concerns 
France ;  it  cannot,  therefore,  be  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  you  to  learn  how  this  serious 
problem  of  detecting  the  real  trend  of  French 
history    appears    to    modern    Frenchmen    who 

^  Translation  by  Associate  Professor  T.  Atkinson 
Jenkins,  of  the  Department  of  Romance  Languages  and 
Literatures.  Reprinted  from  the  University  Record,  Vol. 
IX,   No.    10. 


THE    HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

think  about  these  things.  Of  course,  such  a 
subject  is  too  vast  to  be  taken  in  at  a  glance ; 
moreover,  to  treat  it  before  foreigners  is,  for  a 
Frenchman,  a  task  of  extreme  deHcacy.  Con- 
scious, however,  of  bringing  to  the  task  of 
outhning  the  philosophy  of  French  history,  if 
not  the  requisite  abilities,  at  least  an  absolute 
sincerity,  I  shall  make  the  attempt. 

First  of  all,  do  not  be  alarmed :  I  shall  not 
go  back  to  the  deluge.  The  territory  now  called 
France  has  been  peopled  by  many  races  since 
the  epoch  when,  the  distribution  of  climate 
being  dififerent  from  that  now  prevailing,  men 
hunted  there  the  elephant  and  the  mastodon. 
Modern  anthropologists  exhume  the  bones  of 
these  prehistoric  men,  and  upon  them  build 
speculations  which  have,  to  be  sure,  some  value, 
but  not  for  our  present  purpose.  The  first  of 
these  primitive  peoples  to  hand  down  its  name 
to  us  —  the  Celtic  people,  or  perhaps  I  should 
say  the  Celtic  aristocracy,  the  Gauls  —  flour- 
ished two  thousand  years  ago.  Gaul  was  con- 
quered by  Rome  and  profoundly  Romanized ; 
it  became  one  of  the  main  centers  of  Roman 
civilization  and  shared  in  the  general  destiny 
of  the  Roman  world ;  for  Roman  civilization 
6 


THE  HISTORIC  ROLK  OF  FRANCP: 

was  iiiodihcd  in  Gaul,  as  elsewhere,  during  the 
early  centuries  of  our  era  by  the  success  of  the 
j  udaeo-Christian  movement  and  by  the  advent 
of  the  barbarians.  These  invaders,  mostly  of 
Germanic  race,  took  up  their  abode  in  Gaul  as 
in  other  parts  of  Romania.  Then  follows  in 
Gaul,  as  elsewhere,  anion j2:  the  ruins  of  the 
Roman  structure,  a  long  period  of  turmoil  and 
readjustment,  out  of  which  emerges  the  feudal 
system  —  that  is,  a  system  in  which,  under  a 
royal  authority  more  or  less  nominal,  the  vari- 
ous seigniories  lie  side  by  side  or  interpenetrate, 
while  under  each  feudal  chief  are  groups  of 
retainers  and  subjects.  From  our  present  point 
of  view,  this  is  all  that  we  need  to  know  of  the 
history  of  the  regions  which  are  now  called 
France. 

Not  but  that  frequent  attempts  have  been 
made  to  seek  the  beginning  of  a  French  national 
tradition  in  these  remote  times.  Some  modern 
historians,  examining  what  the  Roman  writers 
say  of  the  Gauls  conquered  by  Caesar,  have 
thought  they  succeeded  in  detecting  in  them 
some  of  the  traits  which  belong  to  Frenchmen 
of  our  own  day.  According  to  these  historians, 
the  Romans  observed  in  our  ancestors  that 
nervous  mobility,  the  spirit  of  quick  sympathy 
7 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

and  of  sociability,  vivacity,  impetuousness,  gen- 
erosity, the  liking  for  eloquence  and  partiality 
for  the  "  point  of  honor,"  as  well  as  the  vanity 
and  general  frivolousness  which  are  still  com- 
monly ascribed  to  the  French  character.  I  find, 
for  example,  in  recent  books  by  reputable  au- 
thors, statements  like  these  :  "  As  for  sensitive- 
ness to  impressions,  we  are  still  the  excitable 
nation  spoken  of  by  Strabo ; "  and  :  "  The  exer- 
cise of  the  will  among  the  French  people  has 
always  been  explosive,  centrifugal,  and  direct, 
as  it  was  among  the  Gauls"  (Fouillee).  These 
analogies  run  into  even  greater  detail,  and  from 
the  descriptions  which  Valerius  Maximus  and 
Diodorus  give  of  the  funeral  ceremonies  of  the 
Gauls,  and  from  the  fact  that  modern  Parisians 
remove  their  hats  on  the  passing  of  a  funeral 
procession  and  visit  the  cemeteries  on  November 
2,  the  conclusion  has  been  drawn  that  "  the  cult 
for  the  dead,  intenser  perhaps  and  certainly 
more  lasting  among  the  Gauls  than  in  the  cities 
of  the  classic  world,  was  destined  to  remain  one 
of  the  strongest  feelings  of  our  nation.  We 
would  fain  be  sociable  and  aflfectionate  even  be- 
yond the  tomb."  These  writers  are  of  a  school 
with  those  who  cannot  describe  the  struggle  of 
Vercingetorix  against  Rome  without  feeling  a 


THE     HISTORIC    R  ()  LK    O  l>     !•  RANCH 

sort  of  retrospective  patriotism,  and  for  whom 
Rome  is  still  the  enemy.  Henri  Martin,  an  his- 
torian much  read  during  the  ptrio<l  from  1850 
to  1870,  represents  this  state  of  mind,  jx'culiar 
as  it  seems  to  us  today. 

Still  other  writers  have  attempted  to  settle 
the  respective  contributions  of  Rome,  of  the 
Gallo-Romans,  and  of  the  Prankish  invaders  to 
the  formation  of  the  French  people.  Thus,  the 
Germanists  maintain  that  the  rule  of  the  bar- 
barians regenerated  the  decrepit  world,  and  that 
the  invaders  brought  with  them  certain  virtues, 
and  certain  original  institutions  which  were  the 
outgrowth  of  these  virtues.  The  Romanists,  of 
whom  M.  Fustel  de  Coulanges  is  the  most 
prominent,  assert  that  the  Germans,  being  few 
in  numbers,  were  at  once  swallowed  up  in  the 
surrounding  populations,  and  that  things  went 
on  nearly  the  same  as  before.  If  we  believe 
certain  historians,  the  feudal  system  in  France 
was  a  product  of  the  Germanic  spirit  of  liberty 
and  companionship  in  arms,  which  acted  like  a 
leaven  upon  a  society  already  fallen  into  decline. 
According  to  others,  the  feudal  system,  a  phe- 
nomenon not  peculiar  to  mediaeval  France  nor 
even  to  mediaeval  Europe,  is  the  product  of 
causes  analogous  to  those  which  have  called  it 
9 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

into  existence  in  very  different  environments, 
for  example  in  Japan. 

A  feudal  system  arose  in  Prankish  Gaul,  as 
elsewhere,  at  the  time  when  the  central  authori- 
ty, in  this  case  of  Roman  origin,  became  power- 
less to  maintain  order  and  safety  of  person  and 
property.  Other  guarantees  were  necessary, 
and  they  were  found,  instinctively,  in  the  rela- 
tion of  lord  and  vassal  existing  in  outline  al- 
ready in  the  Roman  clientele  as  well  as  in  the 
"  companionship  "  of  the  barbarians. 

Probably  the  commonest  conclusion  drawn 
from  these  conflicting  views  is  that  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  extreme  difficulty  to  sift  out,  when  deal- 
ing with  these  remote  times,  what  is  peculiar  to 
the  genius  of  the  particular  race,  and  what  are 
merely  processus  common  to  all  societies  placed 
under  the  same  conditions.  After  all,  what  is 
the  "  genius  "  of  a  race  ?  An  abstraction,  per- 
haps—  merely  a  word  with  which  we  allow 
ourselves  to  be  satisfied,  but  which  may  corre- 
spond to  nothing  real  and  definite.  In  any  case, 
the  Celtic  genius  of  the  Gauls,  the  Germanic 
genius  of  the  Franks  —  without  reckoning  in 
the  nameless  genius  of  those  ancient  elephant- 
hunters  who  have  left  us  nothing  but  their 
bones  —  all  these  geniuses  are  now,  and  have 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

long  since  been,  so  completely  fused  in  the 
French  character  that  to  try  to  separate  them 
would  indeed  be  a  desperate  undertaking.  As 
well  pretend  to  discern  in  a  river  the  waters  of 
its  tributaries.  Let  us  therefore  refrain  entirely 
from  discussions  of  this  kind. 

The  only  primitive  element  whose  influence 
has  certainly  been  continuous  in  our  history  is, 
not  the  tie  of  blood,  but  the  tradition  of  Rome. 
First  of  all,  the  Roman  tongue.  The  population 
of  ancient  Roman  Gaul  spoke  Romance;  the 
number  of  Celtic  words  in  the  Romance  dialects 
of  this  region  is  quite  insignificant,  and  the 
number  of  Germanic  words  not  large.  Dis- 
tricts like  those  parts  of  Britany  where  Breton 
is  spoken,  or  of  Flanders  where  Flemish  is  the 
vernacular,  are  frontier  zones  colonized  by 
Celts  or  Germans  at  comparatively  recent  dates. 
First  of  all,  then,  the  mother-tongue ;  second, 
for  the  cultivated  classes,  the  idea,  the  memory, 
and  the  regretful  admiration  of  a  stable  govern- 
ment, of  political  unity,  of  peace  and  a  superior 
civilization  —  in  a  word,  an  ideal.  This  ideal, 
preserved  by  the  church,  which  was  admirably 
constituted  for  the  purpose,  more  than  once 
powerfully  influenced  the  course  of  events  in 
France. 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

The  Roman  ideal,  fresh  and  recent  in  men's 
minds,  was  influential,  for  example,  at  the  time 
of  the  restoration  of  the  Western  Empire  in 
the  year  800.  Charlemagne,  king  of  the  Franks 
(both  of  Gaul  and  Germany),  believed  he  was 
reviving  the  Roman  Empire  with  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  pope ;  but  this  artificial  restoration 
crumbled  away  in  the  ninth  century.  In  that 
century  the  sons  of  Charlemagne's  son  divided 
up  the  new  empire.  Henceforward  there  was  a 
king  of  the  western  Franks  (Gaul),  and  a  king 
of  the  eastern  Franks  (Germany).  Between 
lay  a  long  strip  of  territory  bounded  by  the 
Scheldt,  the  Meuse,  and  the  Rhone  on  the  one 
side,  and  by  the  Rhine  and  the  Alps  on  the 
other  —  the  inheritance  of  Lothaire.  These  were 
the  earliest  outlines  of  France  and  Germany, 
and  here  lay  their  future  field  of  conflict. 

The  Roman  ideal  was  actively  influential  a 
second  time,  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century, 
in  the  western  Frankish  kingdom  now  called 
France.  The  king,  the  heir  in  this  region  of 
the  Carolingian  emperors  and  consequently  of 
the  imperial  tradition,  was  at  first  only  a  shad- 
ow ;  for  the  inner  processes  of  feudal  disin- 
tegration and  reorganization  which  had  been 
working  gradually    for   centuries   ceased    with 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

the  pericxl  of  Carolingian  decadence.  The 
Prankish  king-  was  at  first  weak  indeed,  being 
very  poor.  But  in  987  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
royal  dignity  fell  to  one  of  the  most  powerful 
feudal  chiefs  of  the  whole  region,  the  ancestor 
of  the  Capetian  line.  From  this  time  on,  the 
tradition  of  authority  as  Rome  understood  it, 
which  in  theory  had  never  once  lapsed,  became 
once  again,  in  hands  able  to  enforce  respect  for 
it,  a  living  force.  Instinctively  the  Capetian  kings 
made  attempts  to  exercise  the  ancient  inalien- 
able rights  of  their  throne.  They  labored  hard, 
without  definite  plan  and  foresight,  and  with- 
out at  first  realizing  clearly  the  nature  of  the 
work  which  they  were  to  accomplish,  to  under- 
mine in  their  kingdom  the  foundations  of  the 
feudal  system,  a  system  turbulent  and  restless, 
and  to  substitute  a  stable  government  —  in  a 
word,  the  unity  and  peace  of  Rome.  The  evolu- 
tion thus  begun  in  the  eleventh  century  in 
France,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Capetians, 
ife  therefore  exactly  parallel  —  though  moving  in 
the  opposite  direction  —  to  the  evolution  dating 
from  the  barbarian  invasions ;  for  it  tends  to 
reconstitute,  within  the  limited  boundaries  of  a 
detached  section  of  Romania,  a  state  more  or 
less  after  the  ancient  conception  of  the  state ; 
13 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

that  is,  an  organized  political  being  or  entity, 
centralized  after  the  manner  of  living  beings. 

For  hundreds  of  years  after  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury the  struggle  of  royalty  against  the  feudal 
powers  of  the  French  territory,  and  for  the  unifi- 
cation of  the  whole  region^  forms  the  basis  of 
French  history.  This  struggle  might  have  end- 
ed in  defeat.  Not  all  the  early  Capetians  were 
princes  of  great  merit  —  far  from  it;  but,  as 
luck  would  have  it,  they  succeeded  one  another 
from  father  to  son  without  disastrous  interreg- 
nums and  without  quarrels  over  divisions  of  the 
inheritance.  They  made  incredible  mistakes ; 
such,  for  example,  as  allowing  the  king  of  Eng- 
land who  already  owned,  as  heir  of  the  ancient 
dukes  of  Normandy,  several  great  continental 
fiefs,  to  acquire  by  marriage  the  whole  south- 
west of  France.  But,  again  as  luck  would  have 
it,  at  the  most  critical  moment,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  French  monarch 
Philippe  Auguste  was  a  man  of  ability  and 
energy,  while  his  principal  antagonist,  John 
Lackland,  king  of  England,  was  a  most  con- 
temptible fellow.  After  Philippe  Auguste,  who 
captured  from  John  Normandy,  Anjou,  Maine, 
and  Poitou,  and  witnessed  the  political  ruin  of 
south  France  brought  about  (to  the  profit  of 
14 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

north  France)  by  the  crusade  against  the  Albi- 
genses,  the  work  was  done :  it  was  decided  that 
there  should  be  one  France  —  not  two,  Langue- 
doil  and  Languedoc,  nor  more  than  two  —  and 
that  the  "  France  of  the  King  "  should  little  by 
little  swallow  up  the  whole  of  the  French  terri- 
tory. The  work  of  Philippe  Auguste  was  not, 
of  course,  done  in  a  day ;  scores  of  years  and 
streams  of  blood  were  needed  to  smother  the 
independence  asserted  by  Brittany  and  Flanders, 
and  by  what  was  left  of  other  feudal  powers, 
and  especially  to  wrest  the  southwest  from  the 
English.  But  finally,  through  indescribable 
sufferings,  France  emerges.  From  the  thirteenth 
century  onward,  and  especially  after  the  Hun- 
dred Years'  War,  France  is  indisputably  a  state, 
and  the  leading  state  in  Europe. 

She  is  the  first  in  date  on  the  continent ;  for 
as  yet  there  is  no  Germany.  The  kingdom  of 
the  eastern  Franks,  whose  head  vainly  made  use 
of  the  Carolingian  title  of  emperor,  remains  in 
a  state  of  anarchy.  There  is  as  yet  no  Italy ; 
and  the  pope  continues  to  carefully  look  after 
that  matter.    There  is  as  yet  no  Spain. 

She  is  the  first  in  power ;  for  France's  only 
rival,  the  England  of  that  day,  has  the  mortal 
enmity  of  the  Scotch,  of  the  Irish,  and  of  the 
15 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

Welsh,  and  is  neither  so  large,  nor  so  populous, 
nor  so  wealthy,  nor  so  triumphantly  active  as 
France.  England  is  confined  in  a  part  of  a 
northern  island,  while  the  name,  the  language, 
the  men  and  things  of  France  have  overflowed 
the  known  world.  The  expansion  of  France, 
one  of  the  most  striking  phenomena  of  mediaeval 
history,  began  very  early,  much  before  Capetian 
policy  had  brought  about  a  unified  France. 
French  Normans  took  England  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  and  southern  Italy  and  Sicily  from  the 
Greeks  and  the  Saracens.  Several  of  the  cru- 
sades were  French  expeditions,  and  a  majority 
of  the  Christian  principalities  of  the  East  —  the 
kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  the  Latin  empire  of 
Constantinople,  the  dukedom  of  Athens,  etc.  — 
were  founded  and  governed  by  French  knights. 
Nor  is  this  all.  For  reasons  which  it  is,  of 
course,  extremely  difficult  to  specify,  there  oc- 
curred, in  this  formative  period  from  the  elev- 
enth century  onward,  a  remarkable  outburst  of 
artistic  effort  in  all  directions.  Of  all  the 
vernacular  literatures  of  the  Middle  Ages  the 
French  is  the  most  original,  the  most  pleasing, 
and  the  only  literature  which  exercised  a  uni- 
versal influence.  In  its  day  it  was  known  and 
imitated    everywhere    within    the    confines    of 

i6 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLP:    OF    FRANCE 

Christianity.  French  was  understood  by  culti- 
vated people,  not  only  in  England,  where  the . 
Norman  dialect  was  for  a  long  time  the  official 
language,  but  also  in  imperial  territories  (the 
Netherlands,  the  Rhine  countries,  etc.),  in  Italy, 
and  in  the  East.  Foreigners  took  a  hand  in 
writing  in  French,  or  in  Provenqal,  and  suc- 
ceeded very  well.  It  is  well  understood  that 
certain  French  poems  of  the  Middle  Ages,  whose 
originals  are  lost,  are  preserved  only  in  transla- 
tions or  adaptations  in  German,  Anglo-Saxon, 
Dutch,  Norwegian,  Icelandic,  Italian,  and  Greek. 
The  "  courtly  "  ideal  of  French  aristocratic  soci- 
ety of  the  twelfth  century  was  adopted  by  the 
upper  classes  of  all  Europe.  In  the  matter  of 
the  arts  of  architecture  and  decoration,  the 
French  styles  —  the  "  Cistercian,"  and  especially 
the  "  Gothic,"  which  is  the  most  characteris- 
tically French  of  all  styles  and  whose  earliest 
attempts  are  to  be  seen  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  Paris  —  were  not  at  all  confined  to 
France.  Modern  archaeologists  have  drawn  up 
the  long  catalogue  of  mediaeval  monuments  built 
beyond  the  French  borders  by  Frenchmen,  or  in 
imitation  of  French  models ;  they  are  found 
everywhere  —  in  Castile,  Bohemia,  Hungary, 
and  Palestine.  Village  churches  in  Cyprus 
17 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

have  an  astonishing  resemblance  to  those  of  our 
own  villages  in  the  departments  of  the  Oise  and 
Seine-et-Oise.  Moreover,  numerous  texts  bear 
evidence  that  French  fashions  and  manufactures 
in  matters  of  costume  and  care  of  the  person 
were  received  outside  of  France  with  no  less 
favor  than  French  art  and  literature.  In  a 
word,  mediaeval  civilization  —  or,  at  the  very 
least,  the  refined  evidences  of  civilization  —  had 
in  all  Christian  countries  a  French  coloring. 

One  more  consideration.  During  this  period 
it  was  to  the  schools  at  Paris  that  the  most 
gifted  clerics  of  all  nationalities  came  to  finish 
their  studies  in  literature  and  theology.  From 
the  tenth  century  on,  Paris  is  the  intellectual 
capital  of  Europe.  A  current  saying  was  that 
the  world  was  governed  by  three  powers :  the 
Papacy,  the  Empire,  and  Learning.  The  first 
resided  at  Rome,  the  second  in  Germany,  and 
the  third  at  Paris.  Another  common  saying, 
quoted  by  Chretien  de  Troyes  in  the  prologue 
to  his  Cliges,  and  certainly  repeated  long  before 
him,  was  to  the  effect  that  Learning  (clergie) 
and  Military  Power  (chevalerie),  after  dwelling 
for  a  time  in  Greece  and  next  in  Rome,  were 
now  settled  in  France,  whence,  it  was  to  be 
hoped,  they  would  never  depart : 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

Puis  vint  Chevalerie  a  Rome 
Et  de  la  Clergie  la  some, 
Qui  or  est  en  France  venue. 
Dieu  doint  qu'ele  i  soit  retenue 
Et  que  li  leus  li  abelisse 
Tant  que  jamais  de  France  n'isse 
L'enors  qui  s'i  est  arestee.' 

A  list  has  been  drawn  up  of  well-known 
men  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  later,  who 
belonged  to  the  University  of  Paris  either  as 
teachers  or  as  students ;  the  greatest  names  in 
the  history  of  the  church  and  of  mediaeval 
thought  are  found  in  this  list.  We  may  note, 
to  be  sure,  that  the  greatest  names  are  not 
French  names :  Albert,  a  German ;  St.  Bona- 
venture  and  St.  Thomas,  Italians ;  Roger  Bacon 
and  Duns  Scotus,  Englishmen,  etc.  But  what 
of  that?  The  fact  remains  that  the  reputation 
of  France  in  science,  some  six  or  seven  hundred 
years  ago,  was  as  great  as  its  renown  in  art  and 
literature  and  in  material  achievement. 


*  Then   Knighthood   came  to   Rome, 
Along  with  the  sum  of  Knowledge, 
Which  now  has  come  into  France: 
God  grant  that  she  be  kept  here, 
And  that  the  place  so  content  her 
That  never  again  shall  leave  France 
The  honor  which   h.is  settled  there. 

19 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

Here,  then,  is  the  main  fact.  At  a  certain 
moment  in  mediaeval  times,  France, --thanks  to 
the  advantages  of  her  geographical  position,  to 
the  abilities  of  her  people,  and  to  other  circum- 
stances (chance  no  doubt  must  be  credited  with 
something)  —  France  was  historically  far  in 
advance  of  all  other  countries,  and  from  all 
points  of  view.  In  modern  times  the  benefits  of 
this  leadership  have  been  gradually  lost,  and 
more  or  less  completely  so.  Why?  How? 
These  two  serious  and  difficult  questions  now 
call  for  an  answer. 

/ 
If  we  ask  ourselves,  today,  how  the  affairs 

of  France  ought  to  have  been  guided  so  as  to 
secure  permanently  the  advantages  of  leader- 
ship, the  answer  seems  plain.  There  were  re- 
quired, first,  such  an  administrative  organiza- 
tion of  the  country  as  would  render  her  total 
military  and  financial  strength  constantly  avail- 
able ;  second,  a  systematic  annexation  of  the 
northern  and  eastern  provinces  belonging  to  the 
ancient  inheritance  of  Lothaire  —  provinces 
which,  thanks  to  German  anarchy,  were  still 
hesitating  between  France  and  Germany  —  as  a 
preparation  for  the  inevitable  time  when  rival 
states  should  appear  on  the  European  continent ; 


THE     HISTORIC     R(')LK    OK     F  RANCH 

and  third,  that  France,  when  the  discovery  of 
new  continents  had  wonderfully  enlarged  the 
horizons  of  human  activity,  ought  to  have  fore- 
seen that  the  future  belonged  to  those  European 
peoples  which  should  "  swarm  over  seas,"  and 
that  the  forces  of  national  expansion  were  to  be 
guided  accordingly. 

To  reproach  the  French  kings  for  not  having 
conceived  this  political  program,  and  especially 
its  third  article,  would  doubtless  be  absurd.  More- 
over, it  is  certain  that  the  first  two  articles,  rela- 
tively easy  of  conception,  were  not  so  easy  of 
execution  as  one  at  this  distance  might  imagine. 
And  yet,  allowance  being  made  for  obstacles 
arising  from  unfavorable  circumstances,  we  are 
justified  in  saying  that  France  has  suffered 
cruelly,  since  the  beginning  of  modern  times, 
from  the  incapacity  of  those  who  have  governed 
the  country.  Nearly  all  of  her  rulers  shame- 
fully neglected  opportunities  and  made  endless 
mistakes.  Other  states  —  Prussia,  for  example 
—  have  plainly  owed  their  greatness  to  the  pru- 
dent and  persevering  policies  of  a  succession  of 
intelligent  kings.  France,  for  her  part,  was  more 
often  than  not  ruled  by  narrow-minded  men 
of  very  ordinary  ability.  Two  exceptions  may 
be  cited  —  Henry  IV.  and  Cardinal  Richelieu; 
but  that  is  all. 


THE    HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

The  first  article  —  that  concerning  interior 
policy  —  needs  no  extended  comment.  The  old 
French  monarchy,  even  under  Louis  XIV., 
never  managed  its  finances  well,  nor,  as  a  conse- 
quence, did  it  ever  command  armies  at  all  com- 
parable, for  instance,  to  those  of  Frederick  II. 
of  Prussia.  Nor  did  France  ever  have  a  solid 
administrative  framework ;  consequently  the 
state  benefitted  by  only  a  small  percentage  of 
the  national  strength. 

The  opportunity  to  annex  without  much 
trouble  the  best  parts  of  Lothaire's  territories 
was  lost  by  the  end  of  the  mediaeval  period. 
The  kings  of  the  house  of  Valois  were  so  little 
alive  to  their  duties  toward  the  country  that 
they  handed  over  to  their  younger  sons  whole 
provinces,  thus  setting  up  once  more  the  ancient 
feudal  arrangement  which  the  early  Capetians 
had  labored  so  hard  to  destroy.  One  of  these 
younger  sons  founded,  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, the  great  house  of  Burgundy,  which,  by  a 
series  of  conquests  and  family  unions,  added  to 
its  French  domains  the  imperial  Netherlands 
and  almost  all  the  northern  part  of  ancient 
Lotharingia  —  a  great  but  fragile  power,  of 
too  rapid  growth.  Louis  XL  shattered  it,  but 
he  did  not  succeed  in  taking  real  possession  of 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

all  the  fragments.  He  was  not  in  a  position  to 
prevent  the  daughter  of  Charles  the  Bold  from 
carrying  over  by  her  marriage  the  imperial  ter- 
ritories of  Burgundy  to  the  house  of  Austria. 
Truly,  a  disastrous  marriage  and  one  fraught 
with  incalculable  consequences  !  To  crown  these 
misfortunes,  the  son  of  this  marriage  married 
the  heiress  of  Spain  —  Spain  which,  by  the 
union  of  Castile  and  Aragon,  had  just  been 
raised  to  the  rank  of  a  first-class  power. 
Thenceforward,  to  conquer  the  Low  Countries, 
France  must  enter  into  conflict  with  Germany 
and  Spain  in  coalition.  This  was  much  to 
undertake ;  in  fact,  too  much.  The  immediate 
successors  of  Louis  XL  preferred  to  waste  time 
in  leading  romantic  expeditions  into  Italy,  with 
the  result  that  French  blood  was  spilled  for  fifty 
years  in  that  country,  to  no  appreciable  eflfect  — 
for  the  mere  pleasure  of  it.  When  this  insanity 
was  over,  it  was  getting  late,  for  the  Reforma- 
tion had  started  the  civil  wars  and  aroused  new 
forces  in  every  direction.  France  at  last,  on  the 
proper  field,  entered  upon  the  fight  with  Spain 
and  Spain's  allies.  She  won  very  slowly,  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  some  of 
the  Lotharingian  provinces :  Alsace,  Franche- 
Comte,  Lorraine ;  but  none  from  the  Nether- 
23 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

lands.  The  pride  of  Louis  XIV.,  excited  to  a 
ridiculous  height  by  his  too  easy  victories  over 
moribund  Spain,  availed  nothing  against  the 
patriotic  energy  of  the  United  Provinces  of 
Holland,  which  had  become  free  and  Protestant. 
In  a  word,  three  and  a  half  centuries  after  the 
end  of  the  Middle  Ages  France  is  hardly  any 
larger  than  she  was  under  Charles  VIL,  although 
not  a  decade  has  gone  by  without  seeing  fright- 
ful hecatombs  of  human  lives  ;  and  around  about 
her,  formidable  states  have  grown  up,  limiting 
her  and  watching  her.  No,  assuredly  not  —  the 
second  article  of  the  program  was  not  carried 
out  as  it  ought  to  have  been. 

What  shall  be  said  of  the  third  ?  Did  France, 
who  in  mediaeval  times  had  colonies  in  the 
East  and  in  southern  Italy,  and  whose  mari- 
time populations  were  noted  for  their  adven- 
turous spirit — Normans,  Bretons,  Basques, 
Provencals  —  did  France  secure  her  legitimate 
part  of  the  new  continents,  repositories  of  virgin 
wealth  and  future  cradles  of  the  human  race? 
There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  if  the  royal 
government  had  been  capable  of  a  settled  policy 
in  this  matter,  great  things  would  have  been  pos- 
sible. France  of  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and 
eighteenth  centuries  was  full  of  people  who 
24 


THK     HISrORlC     1<()I,K     OF    KRANCi: 

would  have  been  glad  to  set  out,  as  they  said 
then,  "  for  the  islands  ;  "  "  they  took  their  hats 
and  set  out  for  the  islands" — this  was  the  cur- 
rent phrase.  But  in  high  places  there  was  very 
little  efTort  made  to  smooth  their  way.  Never- 
theless there  arose  spontaneously,  or  nearly  so, 
more  than  one  New  France  beyond  the  seas  — 
in  the  islands  of  the  Indian  ocean,  in  Hindustan, 
in  the  Antilles,  in  North  America  (the  St.  Law- 
rence Valley,  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes,  the 
Mississippi  Valley).  But  France  was  unable 
to  utilize,  as  England  did,  her  civil  and  religious 
discords  to  propagate  her  race.  The  Hugue- 
nots, driven  out  of  France,  did  not  take  ship  on 
some  "  Mayflower  "  and  found  elsewhere  a  New 
France ;  the  royal  government  would  not  have 
permitted  them  to  live,  even  in  the  far  ends  of 
the  earth,  under  the  Heurs-de-Us.  They  were 
scattered  in  England.  Holland,  Prussia,  Switzer- 
land, and  elsewhere,  where  they  quickly  gave 
up  their  nationality  —  a  dead  loss  to  the  French 
nation.  What  could  we  expect?  The  royal 
government,  absorbed  in  its  European  wars,  its 
eyes  fixed  on  the  classic  battlegrounds  of 
Flanders  and  Italy,  felt  not  the  slightest  interest 
in  the  French  empire  born  beyond  the  seas,  and 
made  foolish  use  of  it  as  small  change  for  ob- 
25 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

taining  concessions.  The  decisive  episode  in  the 
history  of  the  modern  world  belongs  to  the 
eighteenth  century ;  it  is  the  abdication  of 
France,  in  favor  of  England,  as  a  colonial  power 
and  as  the  mother-hive  of  nations.  England 
then  began  in  its  turn  an  enormous  advance, 
the  effects  of  which  in  all  probability  will  be 
prolonged  indefinitely  through  the  ages  to  come. 
In  spite  of  this,  France  continued,  up  to  the 
end  of  this  period  (to  1789),  to  keep  the  first 
rank  among  civilized  states.  We  must  not  for- 
get that  under  Louis  XIV.  the  population  of 
France  alone  still  represented  40  per  cent,  of  the 
total  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe.  The  costly 
mistakes  of  Louis  XV.  in  colonial  matters  were 
hardly  noticed  at  the  time,  and  only  much  later 
were  their  effects  seen.  Finally,  in  all  that  did 
not  depend  directly  on  the  government,  as  in 
letters,  art,  and  science,  France  had  easily  main- 
tained her  supremacy.  Of  course,  in  even  these 
fields  she  is  no  longer  without  rivals.  Italy 
has  had  her  day  in  the  Renaissance ;  the  France 
of  Henry  IV.  and  of  Louis  XIV.  has  no  one  to 
counterbalance  Shakspere  on  the  one  hand,  or 
Velasquez  and  Rembrandt  on  the  other ;  Eng- 
land and  Germany,  with  Newton  and  Leibnitz, 
inaugurate  gloriously  their  work  in  science  and 
26 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

philosophy.  But  France  remains  the  scnsorium 
commune  of  thinking  Europe,  and  still  sets  the 
fashion.  Learned  men  of  all  countries  have  not 
ceased  to  use  French  as  a  medium  of  communi- 
cation, while  Frenchmen  continue  in  contented 
ignorance  of  any  language  but  their  own.  In 
the  eighteenth  century  the  style  Pompadour  and 
the  philosophy  of  the  encyclopedists  were  in 
their  day  the  style  and  the  philosophy  of  the 
civilized  world :  of  the  king  of  Prussia  and  the 
German  princes,  of  the  empress  of  Russia  and 
the  Swedish  aristocracy,  of  all-powerful  states- 
men in  Spain,  Portugal,  Tuscany,  and  else- 
where. Proofs  need  not  be  cited ;  no  one  can 
dispute  the  fact  that  France  was  looked  upon 
in  the  eighteenth  century  as  a  second  fatherland, 
the  intellectual  home  of  all  educated  men.  This 
was  true  of  those  who  smiled  at  her  weaknesses, 
and  even  of  those  who  disliked  France  or  de- 
tested her. 

At  this  time  (1789),  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
years  ago,  occurred  an  accident  which  pro- 
foundly disturbed  the  course  of  European 
history.  All  that  seemed  accomplished  by  the 
evolution  of  the  preceding  centuries  was  sud- 
denly called  in  question  once  more  by  the  French 
Revolution. 

27 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

The  French  Revokition  means  France  rid  of 
the  government  which  had  always  failed  to 
utilize  her  maximum  strength  and  so  to  profit 
by  her  historical  advance  as  to  secure  for  her 
an  unassailable  position  of  leadership.  The 
Revolution  means  France  mistress  of  her  destiny 
for  the  first  time,  her  strength  multiplied 
tenfold  by  glowing  and  generous  passions. 
Monarchical  Europe,  united  against  her,  at- 
tempts to  crush  her  under  its  weight,  but  with- 
out success.  Then  she  takes  the  offensive 
against  Europe,  in  the  role  of  emancipator  of 
peoples.  Henceforward  it  is  not  a  question  of 
whether  or  not  France  shall  get  the  Low  Coun- 
tries and  the  Rhine  as  a  frontier.  All  that  the 
ancient  monarchy  had  been  scheming  for  in 
vain  during  three  hundred  years  was  gained  at 
the  first  stroke,  and  more  besides.  But  her 
momentum  carried  France  farther.  Would  she, 
could  she  check  herself?  Had  she  stopped  in 
time,  the  ill  effects  of  ancient  blunders  might 
have  been  counteracted.  Everything  was  still 
possible.  This  was  one  hundred  and  ten  years 
ago ;   let  us  see  what  happened. 

It  was  in  the  nature  of  things  that  soon  the 
old  instinct  for  rule  and  conquest  should  be; 
mingled,  in  the  revolutionary  consciousness, 
28 


J 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

\\  itli  the  thouf:]:"lit  of  freeing  other  peoples.  This 
spirit  may,  in  fact,  be  observed  as  early  as  1792. 
It  was  therefore  infinitely  probable  that  sooner 
or  later  the  strength  of  France,  magnified  by  the 
Revolution,  should  be  appropriated  and  put  to 
use  by  some  general  favored  by  fortune,  to  for- 
ward his  own  selfish  enterprises.  But  this  general 
might  have  been  a  moderate,  prudent,  and  sen- 
sible man.  If  only  he  had  been  a  born  French- 
man !  But  the  place  was  taken  by  Napoleon, 
by  a  captain,  Italian  by  blood  and  education,  a 
foreigfner  to  our  traditional  views  and  opinions, 
a  man  haunted  by  colossal  chimeras,  and  one 
whose  head  had  been  turned  by  his  amazing  suc- 
cess. He  made  use  of  France,  and  of  all  the 
nations  that  revolutionary  France  had  already 
annexed  or  allied,  as  instruments  wherewith  to 
build  an  empire  like  that  of  Rome,  and  to  em- 
body in  his  person  Alexander  and  Cresar.  And 
here,  we  may  note  by  the  way,  is  the  third  crisis 
when  the  memories  of  imperial  Rome  strongly 
aflfected  the  course  of  French  history.  Possessed 
of  this  weapon,  the  most  formidable  ever 
wielded  by  the  hand  of  man,  Napoleon  trampled 
with  horrible  violence  upon  all  that  opposed  his 
dreams,  regardless  of  the  harvests  of  hatred 
which  he  was  thus  preparing.  He  was  allowed, 
29 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

as  you  know,  to  walk  for  ten  years  in  his  waking 
dream ;  to  enter  as  master  Vienna  and  Berlin, 
Madrid  and  Moscow.  The  French  empire  reached 
from  the  North  Sea  to  the  regions  beyond 
the  Adriatic ;  it  was  surrounded  by  vassal  prin- 
cipalities ruled  over  by  members  of  the  imperial 
family.  We  are  filled  with  amazement  that  such 
a  paradox,  the  bare  idea  of  which  would  have 
seemed  so  supremely  absurd  to  Voltaire  and  his 
contemporaries,  should  thus  have  been  realized. 
Later,  the  day  dawned  for  the  inevitable 
breaking-up,  and  France  suffered  once  more 
for  having  leaders  careless  of  her  interests  and 
of  their  own  duties.  With  his  old-fashioned 
ambitions  all  directed  toward  the  Mediterranean 
countries  of  Europe  and  Asia  as  a  center,  Na- 
poleon at  the  zenith  of  his  career  was  as  power- 
less as  Louis  XV.  to  discern  the  fast-increasing 
importance  of  the  great  territories  of  the  New 
World :  he  carelessly  let  slip  from  his  grasp 
Louisiana  and  the  Mississippi  Valley  —  a  third 
part  and  the  very  heart  of  the  United  States  — 
just  as  formerly  Louis  XV.  let  go  the  valley  of 
the  St.  Lawrence.  Thus  he  finally  destroyed  the 
work  of  the  French  pioneers  of  North  America. 
To  offset  this,  he  thought  he  had  conquered 
Europe.  But  he  had  not  taken  into  considera- 
30 


THE     HISTORIC     R()I,1-:    OK    IRAXCK 

tion  the  facts  that  the  streng^th  of  France  was 
not  unHmited,  and  that  the  sympathy  awakened 
for  revokitionary  France  would  at  last  turn 
against  Napoleonic  France,  whose  brutal  domi- 
nation was  justified  by  no  ideal.  He  took  no 
account  of  the  energies  developed  among  the 
most  inoflfcnsive  peoples  by  the  harsh  manner 
in  which  he  treated  them.  In  his  most  prosper- 
ous years  he  never  succeeded  in  overcoming 
English  tenacity ;  defeated  in  Spain  and  Rus- 
sia, Germany,  after  her  prostration  at  his  hands, 
rose  and  overwhelmed  him.  After  Waterloo  he 
coolly  washed  his  hands  and  departed,  leaving 
France  more  contracted  than  she  had  been  on 
the  eve  of  the  Revolution,  bled  to  exhaustion, 
her  revolutionary  aureole  gone,  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  new  or  rejuvenated  states  whose 
desire  for  vengeance  was  far  from  being  satis- 
fied by  his  downfall. 

The  history  of  France  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, which  at  first  sight  seems  rather  confused, 
unfolds  quite  logically  when,  to  consider  it,  we 
place  ourselves  at  the  right  point  of  view.  We 
may  explain  it  thus :  France,  when  hardly  re- 
covered from  the  Napoleonic  disasters,  tried 
again  to  carry  through  the  revolution,  the  first 
31 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

attempt  at  which  had  turned  out  so  badly.  The 
history  of  France  in  the  nineteenth  century  is 
the  history  of  a  great  effort  to  restore  and  re- 
apply the  principles  of  the  French  Revolution. 
There  were  counter-strokes  and  reactions,  which 
give  an  impression  of  incoherence ;  but  if  we 
look  closer,  we  see  that  the  effort  has  always 
been  made  in  the  same  direction  —  anti- 
monarchical,  democratic,  and  secular. 

The  first  attempt  was  in  1830.  But  this  was 
too  soon ;  the  i%^olution  of  1830  was  quickly 
side-tracked  by  the  liberal  bourgeoisie  for  their 
own  advantage.  At  this  time,  nevertheless, 
France  won  back  the  sympathies  of  some  of  the 
oppressed  nations  and  democratic  parties  whose 
good-will,  proffered  in  1790,  had  been  lost  to 
the  nation  through  Napoleon. 

The  second  attempt  was  in  1848.  But  the 
time  even  yet  had  not  come.  The  revolution  of 
1848  traversed  in  a  few  months  the  arc  which 
the  revolution  of  1789  had  taken  fifteen  years 
to  describe.  Hardly  cured  by  bitter  experience 
of  her  liking  for  "  the  emperor  "  who  had  del- 
uged her  with  "glory,"  France  accepted,  in 
memory  of  Napoleon,  a  restoration  of  the  em- 
pire. This  new  Napoleon  said :  "  The  empire 
means  peace,"  but  he  made  war.  There  were 
32 


THE     HISTORIC     KOI.K     ( )  !■     I'RANCE 

popular  wars,  quite  in  the  spirit  of  revolutionary 
traditions,  as,  for  example,  that  which  hroui^lit 
about  the  creation  of  a  king^doni  of  Italy  ;  but  he 
conducted  the  war  in  such  a  way  that  the  new 
Italian  state  could  believe  itself,  and  of  course 
did  believe  itself,  under  no  obligation  of  grati- 
tude. There  were  absurd  wars  like  that  with 
Mexico.  At  last  the  incapacity  of  the  govern- 
ment and  its  incredible  presumption  brought 
upon  the  country  the  unparalleled  disasters  of 
1870,  involving  the  profoundest  military  hu- 
miliation, Germany  unified  by  victory,  and  the 
amputation  of  two  provinces. 

The  third  attempt  was  in  1870,  under  the 
shock  of  these  calamities.  But  even  the  France 
of  1870  was  hardly  prepared  for  a  regime 
founded  on  liberty ;  so  that  this  third  attempt 
also  came  near  failing  in  the  face  of  renewed 
attacks  on  the  part  of  the  royalists  (1873). 
This  danger,  however,  was  averted,  and  little 
by  little  the  republic  settled  solidly  upon  a  defin- 
itive foundation.  "  As  there  was  never  any 
revolution  in  France  except  to  establish  a  re- 
public, there  have  been  no  revolutions  since  the 
republic  has  been  in  existence."  The  thirty 
years  that  have  just  gone  by  are  the  most  peace- 
ful of  our  history ;  the  country  was  never  more 
quiet  or  prosperous  than  it  is  today. 
33 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

But  while  all  these  events  were  happening 
the  face  of  the  earth  was  changing.  Considered 
apart,  France  of  today  is  incomparably  stronger 
from  every  point  of  view  than  the  France  of 
1789;  but,  relatively,  the  opposite  is  true,  be- 
cause everything  around  her  has  grown  —  the 
proportions  are  no  longer  the  same. 

Under  Louis  XIV.  the  population  of  France 
represented  forty  per  cent,  of  the  total  popula- 
tion of  the  great  powers  of  Europe;  in  1789, 
twenty-seven  per  cent. ;  in  1900,  hardly  ten  per 
cent.  In  1789  France  was  the  most  populous 
state ;  at  the  present  time,  from  this  point  of 
view,  she  falls  behind  Russia,  Germany,  Great 
Britain,  and  Austria-Hungary.  In  1789  she  was 
the  most  homogeneous  of  European  states,  in 
fact,  almost  the  only  one  unified  ;  now  almost  all 
the  European  states  are  as  well  organized  as 
she.  The  very  effect  of  the  Revolution  was  to 
create  numerous  national  centers  and  to  reduce 
France  to  the  rank  of  one  people  among  Euro- 
pean peoples.  Moreover,  Europe  as  a  whole  has 
developed  rivals.  The  field  of  transformation 
has  been  so  wide  that  today  the  largest,  the 
richest,  and  the  most  influential  of  civilized 
states  is  in  North  America.  Still  other  powers 
are  making  their  appearance  beyond  the  United 
34 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

States,  in  the  Pacific  islands.  The  axis  of  the 
world  is  being  shifted.  In  these  days  an  his- 
torical advance  of  several  centuries  may  be 
caught  up  in  thirty  years,  as  Japan  has  shown. 
And  who  would  venture  to  lay  claim,  in  the 
world  such  as  it  now  is  and  promises  to  be,  to 
a  permanent  leadership?  There  is  no  longer 
any  military  primacy  possible  among  so  many 
nations  of  equivalent  strength. 

No  one  nation  can  be  first  among  all  nations. 
The  marvelous  changes  brought  about  in  the 
nineteenth  century  in  the  distribution  of  social 
groups  have  made  this  primacy  impossible,  not 
only  from  the  military  point  of  view,  but  from 
every  point  of  view.  Who,  or  what  people, 
would  venture  to  lay  claim  in  the  present  world 
to  any  sort  of  hegemony  —  intellectual,  artistic, 
or  scientific?  There  was  a  time  when  one  need 
only  know  what  was  written  in  French  ;  literary 
men  of  all  countries  are  today  informed  about 
the  masterpieces  of  all  nations,  even  those  of 
Russia  and  Scandinavia,  and  no  one  is  satisfied 
with  his  own  national  literature  alone.  As  for 
science,  we  realize  nowadays  that  its  pursuit  is 
the  collective  work  of  humanity  as  a  whole ;  all 
peoples  are  in  collaboration,  and  in  the  common 
product  it  is  hard  to  isolate  and  weigh  the  exact 
35 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

contribution  made  by  each.  No  one  can  say,  in 
the  majority  of  scientific  fields,  to  whom  science 
owes  the  most  —  whether  to  the  learned  men  of 
German,  of  English,  or  of  French  speech. 

Frenchmen  who  have  studied  the  history  of 
their  country,  and  who  are  acquainted  with 
other  countries,  therefore  put  aside  the  dream  — 
once  fully  realized  but  henceforward  antiquated 
—  of  an  exclusive  and  preponderant  influence 
emanating  from  France  in  military,  artistic,  or 
scientific  fields.  They  have  good  reasons  for 
not  indulging  in  this  dream;  but  none  the  less 
they  ask  themselves  what  is  destined  to  be,  in 
the  collective  life  of  humanity,  the  role  assigned 
to  France,  in  the  light  of  her  past,  by  historical 
probability.  Each  of  the  great  modern  nations 
has  its  individual  features  which  the  centuries 
have  developed  and  which  must  be  respected. 
What,  then,  constitutes  the  individuality  of 
France  among  modern  nations?  Here  is  pre- 
cisely the  question  in  which  I  intended  the  pres- 
ent address  to  culminate. 

Recently,  various  solutions  have  been  pro- 
posed in  France,  some  of  them  diametrically 
opposed  to  others. 

The  author  of  a  book  entitled  La  Patrie  fran- 
gaise,  ses  origines,  sa  grandeur  et  ses  vicissitudes 
36 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLF.    OK    FR.\\(    i; 

— an  author  little  known,  but  one  who  ])cr- 
sonifies  and  represents  a  school  —  writes  :  "  The 
flag  of  France  is  distinguished  from  all  others 
by  the  fact  that  it  is  always  accompanied  or  pre- 
ceded by  the  Cross.  This  cross  is  undeniably 
the  symbol  of  the  mission  fulfilled  on  the  earth 
by  our  country,  and  one  which  other  nations 
would  like  to  snatch  from  her."  This  author 
believes  that  the  essential  and  traditional  role  of 
France  is  that  of  eldest  daughter  and  pillar  of 
the  church,  the  Catholic  church :  Gcsta  Dei  per 
Francos. 

IMichelet,  the  head  of  another  school,  declares, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  what  is  peculiar  to 
France  is  that  she  has  always  sacrificed  herself 
for  "  causes "  of  universal  interest,  for  the 
liberty  and  welfare  of  mankind  ;  she  is  "  the 
most  humane  of  nations,  who  alone,  as  history 
shows,  possesses  the  genius  of  sacrifice."  Has 
she  not  given  her  blood  to  free  the  United 
States,  Greece,  Belgium,  Poland,  Italy?  "In 
this  country  alone  strength  and  ideality  are  at 
one,  valor  and  right  —  two  things  disjoined 
the  world  over,"  etc.  To  Michelet  and  to  his 
generation  the  national  traditions  of  France 
are  the  ideals  of  justice,  liberty,  equality,  and 
solidarity ;  her  "  mission "  is  to  propagate 
37 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

these  principles  among  men ;  she  is  for  all  time 
"  the  champion  of  reason  and  fraternal  equality, 
the  soldier  of  right."  "  France,"  said  Ernest 
Renan,  "  —  that  nation  which  performs  dis- 
interested acts  for  the  benefit  of  the  rest  of  the 
Vi'orld."  And  another  declares,  in  the  same 
mood :  "  If  France  ever  thought  of  giving  up 
her  disinterested,  social,  and  humane  spirit,  she 
vvrould  lose  without  possible  compensation  what 
has  always  been  the  source  of  her  moral 
power ; "  and :  "  The  great  reason  for  the 
powerful  influence  exerted  by  France  on  other 
nations  has  been  that  she  has  never  ceased  to 
concern  herself  with  the  destinies  of  mankind." 

It  is  impossible  to  accept,  in  its  entirety,  either 
of  these  two  theses. 

The  first  belongs  to  an  unimportant  minority. 
It  has  been  a  long  time  since  France  appeared  in 
the  role  of  the  champion  of  Catholicism.  Pepin 
the  Short,  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  St.  Louis,  and 
even  Napoleon  III.  as  defender  of  pontifical 
Rome  against  Garibaldi,  are  far  in  the  past. 
The  real  eldest  daughter  of  the  church,  as  all 
know,  is  Spain.  It  would  even  seem  that 
France,  historically  speaking,  is  the  nation 
which  among  the  Catholic  nations  has  played 
this  part  the  least.  But  it  is  quite  useless  at  this 
time  to  insist  further  on  this  point. 
38 


TllK     HISTORIC     R()T,K     OI      1   k  A  N  C  K 

The  second  thesis  is  very  characteristic  of  the 
mid-nineteenth  century.  It  is  not  entirely  and 
radically  false,  for  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
rationalistic  and  sentimental  proj^^ram  of  the 
Revolution  was  the  crystallization  of  opinions 
which  had  been  very  popular  for  centuries.  From 
this  point  of  view  it  is  true  that  the  French  tra- 
dition falls  in  very  well  with  the  humanitarian 
program  of  the  Revolution.  And  it  is  true  that 
the  Revolution  formulated  definitely  an  ideal  of 
liberty,  equality,  fraternity,  and  justice,  and  im- 
posed it  with  a  new  vigor  upon  succeeding 
generations  in  France,  even  to  the  point  of  lead- 
ing Frenchmen  into  chivalric  interventions  — 
often  ill-managed  and  sometimes  resented  —  in 
the  afifairs  of  others.  But  the  error  of  Michelet 
and  his  following  lay  in  believing  in  a  quasi- 
providential  and  indefeasible  "  mission,"  as  if 
humanity  were  destined  to  remain  always,  so  to 
speak,  under  the  influence  and  ascendency  of 
that  nation  which  was  the  first  to  open  new 
highways  into  the  future.  We  can  easily  see 
how  they  were  led  here  into  an  exaggeration : 
they  insisted,  in  an  indirect  way,  on  reserving 
for  France  a  sort  of  primacy ;  a  military  or 
intellectual  supremacy  being  excluded,  they  sub- 
stituted a  primacy  of  dominating  and  guiding 
39 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

forces  in  the  direction  of  progress,  enlighten- 
ment, and  emancipation.  We  are  better  in- 
formed nowadays ;  we  have  learned  that  in  the 
future  such  a  primacy  will  be  divided  up  like 
the  others.  All  peoples  have  henceforward  a 
universal  role.  As  one  of  our  orators  has  said : 
"  they  are  like  vessels,  which,  fitted  with  elec- 
tric searchlights,  and  with  prows  directed 
toward  the  horizon  of  a  better  civilization,  are 
sweeping  the  horizon  with  their  lights.  Who 
knows  from  which  vessel,  or  from  what  people, 
will  come  the  brightest  signal,  the  most  piercing 
ray?" 

As  a  reaction  against  the  usual  insistence  by 
the  Catholic  idealists  and  the  revolutionary 
idealists  upon  identifying  the  destiny  of  France 
with  "  the  genius  for  sacrifice " —  sacrifice  of 
the  national  interests  to  those  of  the  church  or 
to  those  of  humanity  —  and  under  the  stress  of 
mistakes  committed  in  the  name  of  these  theo- 
ries, a  new  school  has  grown  up  since  the  formal 
establishment  of  the  republic,  which  advocates 
the  contrary  policy  of  national  egoism,  a  policy 
favoring  business  and  colonial  activity.  "  We 
liave  done  enough  for  others,  it  is  time  to  take 
thought  for  ourselves."  Surely  nothing  could 
be  more  natural  than  this  defensive  movement, 
40 


THK     11  IS  TO  KK;     kOlJ.     Ol      1   KAN  CI-; 

and,  if  it  had  always  been  guided  by  enlightened 
men,  nothing  perhaps  could  be  wiser.  But  at 
the  same  time  it  is  plain  that  nothing  is  more 
foreign  to  the  careless  and  generous  spirit  of  the 
nation.  France  hears  the  bourgeois  virtues 
preached  to  her ;  but  she  has  always  acted  the 
part  of  the  ij^rand  seii^neur. 

Where,  then,  is  that  originality,  the  inheri- 
tance of  a  long  past,  which  France  is  bound  to 
respect  and  cultivate  for  her  own  good  and  that 
of  others?  Let  us  see.  The  French  people 
(I  mean  now  the  majority  of  cultivated  people 
in  France)  has  always  been  very  secular  and 
very  free  in  its  thought ;  in  France  people  began 
very  soon  to  speak  on  any  and  all  subjects  with- 
out reserve  and  without  prohibition ;  and  this 
complete  liberty,  which  contributes  not  a  little 
to  the  life  and  ease  of  our  literature,  is  yet,  for 
many  foreigners,  the  object  of  remark  and  of 
envy.  The  French  mind  and  the  French  lan- 
guage, moreover,  are  generally  credited  with 
certain  eminent  qualities :  precision,  clearness, 
logic.  Quite  as  much  as  her  ancient  ascen- 
dancy these  qualities  have  won  for  France  for 
centuries  past  her  traditional  role  of  mediator 
between  the  nations.  If  there  has  been  in  the 
modern  world  any  parallel  to  the  ancient  univer- 
41 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

sality  of  Greek  culture,  it  has  been  the  diffusion 
of  French  culture  among  the  intelligent  classes 
of  all  countries.  Thus  it  is  that  our  French 
writers  have  been  "  the  secretaries  of  the  human 
mind  "  —  in  other  words,  they  have  excelled  in 
the  labor  of  sifting  out  what  is  precious  or 
exquisite  in  foreign  civilizations,  with  a  view  to 
enjoying  it  themselves  and  enabling  the  whole 
world  to  enjoy  it.  These  are  remarks  which 
might  easily  be  expanded ;  the  subject  is  one 
worthy  of  reflection.  Mankind  surely  has  need 
of  a  mediator  between  its  different  groups,  a 
nation  where  the  new  faith,  which  shall  be  at 
once  rational  and  social,  and  which  has  not  yet 
been  put  forward  to  replace  the  old  decrepit 
beliefs,  shall  be  worked  out  in  an  atmosphere  of 
absolute  intellectual  liberty.  It  is  true  that  I 
was  reading  lately  a  book  of  a  German  professor 
in  which  he  predicts  that  this  mediating  nation 
will  be  Germany ;  and  a  book  of  an  Italian  pro- 
fessor who  claims  it  will  be  Italy,  the  venerable 
mater  gentium.  And,  by  the  way,  why  should 
not  this  nation  be  the  United  States,  where  all 
the  races  of  the  old  continent  have  met  and  been 
fused  ?  There  is  no  doubt  that  each  of  the  great 
peoples  of  the  world  has  good  reasons  to  destine 
this  fine  role  to  its  own  country.  But  if  these 
42 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OK    FRANCE 

are  illusions,  they  are  beneficent  illusions  ;  let  us 
keep  them.  It  is  a  sign  of  the  times  that  we 
shall  now  witness  a  competition  for  this  pacific 
office  of  mediator.  The  future  will  decide.  We 
shall  see. 

In  any  case,  the  people,  whichever  it  may  be, 
that  shall  perform  the  duties  just  mentioned 
must  needs  be  a  healthy,  vigorous,  and  growing 
people.  France  then  would  be  constrained  to 
renounce  her  candidacy  if  it  were  true  that  she 
had  fallen  into  a  decline,  as  has  recently  been 
rumored.  Depopulation,  alcoholism,  parasitism 
in  government  circles,  and  what  not?  Volumes 
have  been  written  in  France  to  discuss  this  ques- 
tion. A  whole  literature  full  of  an  enervating 
pessimism  has  appeared  to  uphold  the  affirma- 
tive. A  newspaper  sent  a  circular  to  persons  of 
note  to  inquire  as  to  their  opinion.  Some  an- 
swered "  Yes  ;  "  others,  "  No ;  "  others,  "  Per- 
haps." An  Englishman  answered :  "  Surely 
France  is  decadent,  since  Frenchmen  are  found 
who  ask  such  a  question."  Heaven  knows  it  is 
not  impossible  that  even  a  great  and  noble 
nation  should  fall  one  day  into  decadence :  Nil 
permanet  sub  sole.  Men  have  seen  it  happen. 
History  records  that  strange  decline  of  vitality 
that  came  upon  Spain  in  the  late  sixteenth  cen- 

43 


THE     HISTORIC    ROLE    OF    FRANCE 

tiiry  and  from  which  she  has  not  recovered. 
But  no  one  who  knows  France  of  today  can  con- 
vince himself  that  she  is  seriously  ill.  She  has 
had  attacks,  at  different  times  during  the  last 
twenty  years,  of  malig-nant  diseases  which  she 
has  victoriously  cast  off  —  an  evidence  of  a  good 
constitution.  On  the  material  side,  she  has 
maintained  her  rank.  One  cannot  know  exactly, 
of  course,  what  a  modern  military  organization 
is  worth  until  it  is  tested  by  a  shock,  and  it  is 
certainly  true  that  "  where  a  battalion  is  con- 
stituted in  France,  a  regiment  springs  up  in 
Germany,  and  an  army  corps  in  Russia;"  but 
there  are  reasons  for  hoping  that  the  French 
organization  is  what  it  ought  to  be,  and  numbers 
are  not  everything.  We  have  seen  and  may  see 
today  certain  well-organized  states,  active  and 
firm  on  their  feet  even  if  diminutive  in  stature, 
who  are  commanding  the  respect  of  states  of 
colossal  size.  Morally  speaking,  do  you  not  be- 
lieve that  the  world  would  lose  something  if 
tomorrow  French  authors  should  cease  writing 
and  French  artists  no  longer  express  their  con- 
ceptions of  beauty? 

It  seems  plain   that  what  has   made  a   few 
Frenchmen  afraid  of  a  possible  decadence  —  a 
fear  which  is  at  present  groundless  —  is  simply 
44 


T  H  K     H  I  STC)  R  1  C     k  () ! .  !•;    ( )  F    V  R  A  N  ( '  I ; 

the  discomfort  due  to  an  uneasy  and  imperfect 
realization  of  the  situation  which  I  have  en- 
deavored to  describe  clearly  in  your  presence  to- 
day :  the  all-important  fact  that  France,  who  in 
former  days  exerted  a  preponderant  influence 
because  of  her  historical  position  in  advance  of 
other  nations,  is  today  only  one  among  many, 
una  inter  pares.  "  For  thirty  years  now,"  ex- 
claimed recently  M.  Jules  Lemaitre,  the  well- 
known  nationalist,  "  there  has  been  no  special 
pleasure  in  being  a  Frenchman ! "  It  is  quite 
natural  that  Frenchmen  of  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  should  have  had  some  difficulty 
in  accustoming  themselves  to  these  new  condi- 
tions which  the  general  evolution  of  human 
societies  has  imposed  rather  rudely  on  their 
country.  Hence  this  uneasiness,  which  is  be- 
trayed in  some  by  exhibitions  of  excessive 
humility  ;  in  others,  by  outbursts  of  pride.  But 
our  eyes  are  now  opened :  we  are  proud  —  and 
why  should  we  not  be?  —  of  a  very  glorious 
past ;  we  rejoice  in  the  attention  which  this 
past  secures  for  us  from  nations  whose  future 
seems  brighter  than  ours  ;  and  we  are  confident, 
lastly,  that  France  will  remain,  by  virtue  of  the 
sincerity  of  her  efforts,  one  of  the  forces,  one  of 
the  lights,  and  one  of  the  graces  of  humankind. 
45 


AA    000  978  297     o 


i>OUTHER-N  BRANCH, 

^iNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFOflNM 
LIBRARY, 

4JOS  ANQELES.  CALfF 


